Ethiopian Airlines pilot reportedly hit trouble right after taking off

March 14, 2019

Just one minute after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday, the pilot of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 reported a "flight control" problem, a person who reviewed air traffic communications told The New York Times Thursday. The brand new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed while en route to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board. The person said that three minutes into the flight, the pilot sounded panicked, and requested permission to return to the airport. By that point, air traffic controllers had already noticed that the plane had accelerated to an unusually high speed, and was erratically moving up and down. Within five minutes, contact with the jet was lost. The voice and data recorders are now in France, where they will be analyzed.

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Trump declares support for Israeli sovereignty over disputed Golan Heights

President Trump on Thursday tweeted his support for recognizing Golan Heights as Israeli territory. Syria and Israel have fought over the 460-square mile plateau for more than half a century; it was Syrian land until Israel seized it in 1967. "After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and regional stability," Trump wrote. His public support came just a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has been pushing for the U.S. to support Israel's control over the region, in part to boost support for his re-election campaign.

Facebook on Thursday acknowledged having stored hundreds of millions of user passwords in plain text when they should have been encrypted. This followed a report from cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs that said this has been happening "in some cases going back to 2012." Krebs reported that "between 200 million and 600 million" users have been affected. In a blog post, Facebook didn't provide an exact number but said it would notify "hundreds of millions" of affected Facebook and Instagram users. These unencrypted passwords were reportedly searchable in a database that could be accessed by 20,000 Facebook employees. Facebook says it discovered this during a security review in January but found "no evidence to date that anyone internally abused or improperly accessed the passwords."

Six days after a gunman murdered at least 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern effectively banned the sale of AR-15s and all similar assault rifles Thursday afternoon. "Related parts used to convert these guns into [military-style semi-automatics] MSSAs are also being banned, along with all high-capacity magazines," she said. These changes will require legislation, and Ardern said she expects the bans to be enshrined in law by April 11, with a buy-back program put in place afterward. In the meantime, the government has immediately reclassified "virtually all" of the weapons she mentioned so purchasing them now requires a special permit from the police.

The death toll from Cyclone Idai continued to rise in southern Africa on Wednesday, with more than 200 people confirmed dead in Mozambique and at least 100 more victims in neighboring Zimbabwe. Floodwaters were forecast to continue to rise on Thursday, with more torrential rains expected. "Floodwaters are predicted to rise significantly in the coming days and 350,000 people are at risk," the United Nations humanitarian office said. Aid groups have been struggling to rescue survivors, some awaiting help on rooftops. Entire villages have been destroyed. "There is death all over," said a survivor, Amos Makunduwa, who carried his remaining possessions in a bag.

The NCAA men's basketball tournament got started Wednesday night, with the "First Four" games to set the full field of 64 teams when March Madness kicks off in earnest on Thursday. Arizona State beat St. John's, 74-64, bouncing back from a late-season slide. The Sun Devils, a No. 11 seed, move on to face Buffalo, seeded 6 in their bracket, in the round of 64. The North Dakota State Bison beat the North Carolina Central Eagles, 78-74. The Bisons' junior guard Tyson Ward led all scorers with 23 points. North Dakota moves on to face the top-ranked Duke Blue Devils next, on Friday.